Crown Princess Review

The Crown is pretty tarnished.

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Crown Princess
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Nurgle
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Dec 2009

My wife and I sailed out of Fort Lauderdale on December 12th on the Crown Princess for a 7 day cruise. This was our 2nd cruise our first being in on the Independence of the Sea. First off we didn't expect the Crown Princess to be as nice as the Independence, but I suppose we were both very spoiled by our Independence experience. The Crown Princess is supposed to be a 2006 ship but it felt like a real jalopy compared to the Independence. This ship had more shaking, buzzing, and rattling than my 1984 Dodge D50 pickup. Our stateroom was an interior near the back of the ship on deck 10. The mirrors and fixtures attached to the walls crackled and popped as the ship vibrated. While this didn't bother me at all my wife who is very noise sensitive chose to wear earplugs because of it, in order to sleep. Fortunately the bed acted as a shock absorber (the bed was very firm) and was able to deaden some of the bumping. The last two days of the trip the ship rocked so badly we were woken up several times during the night, weather was bad but I have seen worse. On the last day we met up with some other passengers who got seasick from the shaking of the ship, the night before. As I write this it's been over 24 hours since getting of this ship and I am still a little dizzy. The rattles were not just in the stateroom. Laying on the loungers on the terrace pool deck, the floor shook the loungers so badly that when I talked it was like I was talking through a electric fan. Ditto for the buffet dining rooms. My wife and I are vegans, which we expected to be an obstacle. While there are some vegetarian options, most are saturated in cream and butter. The popular greasy fried meat, and cheese dishes that most people like still seemed fairly substandard. We were pretty much relegated to the salad bar, which was fair, not much selection, It didn't matter much to most people since it went relatively untouched, as there wasn't any space left on the plates piled with sorry looking pizza and such. Bottom line the buffet was a disappointment. Furthermore there are some other peculiarities in the buffet that baffle me. During breakfast and lunch (cannot verify dinner) you couldn't get your own tableware. The serving staff seemed already very busy busing tables and getting people drinks. You would get to the table and there were no utensils to eat with. sometimes you would have to wait quite a long time for the server to bring you a set. Oddly the after dinner buffet had all the knives and forks at the front of the line with the plates. Same story for napkins. Just the cloth one with the utensils. Ketchup mysteriously absent from the buffet at lunch when French fries were being served. Some server had to run all the way to the burger bar to fill up a dish with ketchup. All I kept thinking was who the heck organized this mess? The main dining room was a different story, this was the ship's saving grace. Day one they were pretty unprepared to deal with vegans (even though they had a heads up), but they recovered nicely making the proper adjustments to the following nights meals. Service in the main dining room was top notch, presentation was good, very friendly staff, accommodating, and many dishes were excellent. Entertainment was hit or miss. Not much to chose from, the theater is undersized for the amount of passengers, so getting seats 30-40 mins prior to curtain was necessary. Most nights has a 1 hour dance musical production. These were decent and for what they are I thought they were pretty good. After 2 of these they get a little old, and we stopped going all together. There was a comic magician who I enjoyed very much. There was another comic who most of the seniors enjoyed but I found sort of stale. There was supposed to be a Cirque troop but it ended up just being a mime couple, who just did a couple 15 minute bits, very underwhelming. There was a hypnotist show too which was also very underwhelming. The undercard entertainment revolved around some bar room style trivia and karaoke. The Gym--this place looks decent at first glance until you actually start working out. Ventilation is poor for a gym. Here's the funniest part, the ceilings are low, so low in fact that when I was on the elliptical machine I would actually bang my head into the ceiling tiles, which were metal, I am about 6' tall so hardly a giant. Working on resistance exercises was ok. Only warm water came out of the drinking fountains, which seemed to be the norm. Warm water was all that would come out of the faucets in our room too. Up to the pools. Starting at the front of the ship is the basic pool. Only 1 of the hot tubs was heated. There was a band there that I didn't like and I couldn't drown out with my MP3 player so we didn't end up there often. The middle pool has a big TV screen over the pool. This was used to play football games very loud. I saw a few people covering their ears with their hands, at that time. Above there is a nicely shaded and quiet area they call the sanctuary, which seemed like it would be a nice area to stay but, it was off limits unless you paid $20 per person per day (which is completely absent from any literature or website info) to lay in a lounger there. When I was there it was completely empty. Finally there is the Terrace Pool in the back of the ship. This was our favorite pool area, it was relatively quiet. Had a nice view out the aft of the ship. Seating here was scarce, and shade was even more so. This area was serviced by a bar and was right off of the buffet so it was easy to get a little snack while you are out there (for us fruits). First stop was Grand Cayman, The day was hot, we caught a cab to cemetery reef which was pretty far away from the port. We had our own snorkeling stuff so no rentals were needed. The beach was pretty secluded so it was quiet. Cab ride was $12 + tip. Some nice vacationers who had rented a car gave us a ride back to the port, otherwise we would have been taking a risk to try to hail a cab back from this location. Snorkeling was good, though some inclement weather earlier left the water a little murkier than normal, we still had a good time at this port. Grand Cayman is very clean and very safe feeling. Prices are higher here but tolerable. Second stop was Roatan, Honduras. This is a great port, sort of. Actually the port is awful. Right out of the port gates you are swarmed with peddlers and cabbies, and beggars from all directions. This area is dirty and crowded, it's poor and it looks poor. Cab rides to decent beaches are not cheap here and we ended up renting a scooter. This was my first scooter rental. I had lots of sportbike experience so the scooter was easy to pick up. I was initially a little scared about renting the scooter as the guy wanted one of the sea passes as collateral. However we still had our IDs so I figured worst case we could finagle our way back on board. The scooter was $50 but we talked the guy down to $40 for the day. The scooter was in fair condition, the helmets didn't fit right but the thing ran all day long without any major problems, the brakes were crap but we didn't have any accidents either. The scooter was a blast and we enjoyed it much more than a cab. we were able to go to Tabyana beach which was spectacular. The snorkeling was superb right off the shore. We had a great time. then we rode around The Island a little on the scooter to explore a little more. we returned to the port, the guy gave us back our sea pass without a hassle and everything worked out just fine. Next day we went to Cozumel. This is small island with not much going on near the port so again we tried to measure up our options and if you could probably guess we ended up with another scooter. $40 was the price up front. This scooter was in better condition with a basket (which was nice to put our backpack in), and far superior brakes. This island was very busy near the port but became a very leisurely ride after about 7 miles. then it's a big 46mile loop around the island. We visited the ruins San Gerbasio, which were ok, $7 per person, it was self guided and the grounds were decent, if you didn't go here you didn't miss much. The back side of the island has some good surf, the waves were frequent with about a 4' peak. Water was very clear, there were many beach clubs on the back side of the island. As we completed our circle we ended south of the port. There was a beach club called the Money Bar at Dzul Ha beach. Here was some great reefs near the shore. Fish were abundant and we were pleasantly surprised with the number of conveniences nearby like bathrooms and lockers. Next day was Princess Cays in the Bahamas. I figured this would be like RC's Labadee, and I was right. This is a Princess only island with limited activities. The snorkeling was not as good as our other stops but was superior to Labadee. Weather was supposed to be bad that day, so the last tender back was moved up to 2pm. It ended up being just fine. The tender ride was pretty shaky but there was no rain and wind was mild. That night the boat rocked so much I practically fell out of the bed. The next day was a sea day, it seemed ok weather-wize, sunny and warm. It was back to the terrace pool for taking in the nice day with some peace and quiet. Hit one show and called it early. Another roller coaster night and we arrive at Fort Lauderdale. Disembarkation was amazingly fast. We had signed up for the early disembarkation which our group was scheduled for 7:15. we were off the ship and in the cab by 7:35. Overall we had a good time thanks to some great ports and very friendly crew. But it hardy knocked my socks off.

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